Indigofera australis, Australian Indigo, purple pea-flower. Paxton c1840

by Paxton, Joseph

Antique print of Australian Indigo, native purple-pea plant.

Original hand-coloured lithograph, drawn and lithographed by Samuel Holden for Joseph Paxton's Magazine of Botany & Register of Flowering Plants, published in London c1842.

Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865) was a hugely talented man. Starting as a gardener at 14, with little education, his enthusiasm, ability and application were rewarded by employment when 23 as Head Gardener of the Duke of Devonshire’s Chatsworth Estate - one of England’s finest gardens. Although best known as a landscape gardener, Paxton became both architect and engineer. His design for a glass house conservatory at Chatsworth served as a model for Paxton’s design of the Crystal Palace for London's Great International Exhibition of 1851 (for which he received his knighthood).

Size of page 230 x150mm (9 x 6 inches) This lithograph is taller than most in this series, and the name was cropped when the page was trimmed for binding in publication. It has been beautifully mounted (half-framed) in decorated 'antique white' ragmat conservation board, and covered with cellophane for presentation and protection until framed. Approximate external measurement for frame window is 365 x 280mm (14 3/8 x 11 inches).